North Korea

Everything you need to know about North Korea: news, reviews, in-depth analysis, opinion and more

North Korea: East Asian Communist State with Nuclear Ambitions

The Korean Empire governed North Korea until it was occupied by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. Later on it was divided into Russian and U.S. occupied zones in 1945. In 1948 North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations-supervised election that resulted in the creation of separate Korean governments in the two occupied zones of Korea. After that Kim Il-sung introduced the personal philosophy of Juche or self-reliance that became a guiding light for North Korea's development. This totalitarian governance resulted in rigid control over the government functions and activities. Reports of torture, public executions, slave labour, and forced abortions and infanticides in prison camps have emerged. Recently, the nuclear ambitions of North Korea have caused considerable concern and strains in the world community and led to souring of relations with South Korea.

Geographical Information on North Korea:
North Korea shares its borders in the north with China, in the east with the Sea of Japan, in the west with the Yellow Sea, and in the south with the demilitarised zone separating it from the Republic of Korea. Most of the land consists of hills and low mountains and only a small area is cultivable.
North Korea's climate is relatively temperate, with precipitation heavier in summer during a short rainy season and winters that can be bitterly cold.

Culture, Cuisine and Tradition Of North Korea:

North Korea combined with South Korea has a unified history of 5,000 years and both have been considerably influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism. This culture is magnificently manifested in the architecture of buildings, monuments, costumes and religious beliefs. Japanese influence is found in almost every aspect of North Korean lifestyle. During the Japanese rule Koreans were forced to learn and speak Japanese, adopt the Japanese family name system and Shinto religion, and forbidden to write or speak the Korean language in schools, businesses, or public places. Buddhism continues to be a part of cultural recognition in North Korea.
North Korea food comprises of the traditional foods and ancient preparation techniques of Korea. North Korean dishes are based largely on rice, noodles, vegetables, meats and tofu. Traditional Korean meals include the delicious dishes like banchan that is made up of fermented, spicy vegetable banchan, cabbage, radish or cucumber. Kimchi, a staple of Korean cuisine is a health diet rich in nutritional values.

Tourist Attraction of North Korea:

The tourism in North Korea is strictly controlled by the government and it insists that all tourists must have government approved tour guides with them at all times. Photography is severely restricted and interaction with local people is curtailed.

Pyongyang:Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea and it is located on Taedong River. The interesting landmarks in the city are Juche Tower, Children’s Palace, USS Pueblo, the Arch of Triumph and the Korean War Museum.

Wonsan:

Wonsan is a port city located in the southeast part of the country. Its crystal clear waters and beautiful pine plantations make it a very popular tourist destination

April 13, 2015 at 12:25 PM

May 3, 2012 at 2:14 PM

Seoul, May 3 (IANS) South Korea's foreign reserves grew to a record high of $316.84 billion last month due to an increase in investment profits and a growth in conversion value of non-dollar denominated assets, the central bank said Thursday.

May 3, 2012 at 10:06 AM

Los Angeles, May 3 (IANS/EFE) Pop idol Enrique Iglesias returns to his native Madrid to offer his first concert in Spain in more than a decade, an event to which he is going after "two weeks without sleeping", he said.

May 2, 2012 at 5:46 PM

Berlin, May 2(ANI): A group of radical Muslims, also referred to as Salafist jihadists, attacked police in the German city of Solingen on Tuesday during a far-right rally, which displayed anti-Islamic cartoons.

May 1, 2012 at 2:50 PM

May 1, 2012 at 1:22 PM

Islamabad, May 1 (ANI): Pakistan has summoned a senior U.S. diplomat to lodge a formal protest over the recent drone attack in North Waziristan Agency, igniting fresh tensions between the two countries.

April 30, 2012 at 8:10 PM

Islamabad, Apr 30 (ANI): A fresh drone strike by the Central Investigation Agency in Pakistan's North Waziristan Agency have drawn speculations of a set back in vital negotiations between the already strenuous U.S.-Pak relationship.

April 30, 2012 at 1:22 PM

Seoul, April 30 (IANS) South Korea's industrial output growth plunged last month due to weak demand at home and abroad caused by high oil prices and economic slowdown in China, a government report showed Monday.

April 29, 2012 at 5:14 PM

Seoul, April 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korea will send a group of government officials, scholars and civic activists to the United States to look into the latest outbreak of mad cow disease amid growing food safety concerns at home, the farm ministry here said Sunday.

April 29, 2012 at 5:14 PM

Tehran, Apr 29 (Xinhua-ANI): Iran has found a new natural gas field in the country's southwestern province of Khuzestan which is estimated to contain reserves as much as the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday.

April 28, 2012 at 2:34 PM

Islamabad, Apr 28 (ANI): The latest talks on ending a diplomatic deadlock between the United States and Pakistan ended in failure on Friday over Pakistan's demands for an unconditional apology from the United States for the deadly airstrike by NATO craft in its territory.

April 28, 2012 at 2:02 PM

Pyongyang, Apr 28 (Xinhua-ANI): Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un recently observed a combined military exercise marking the 80th anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the official news agency KCNA said Saturday.

April 27, 2012 at 8:18 PM

London, April 27 (IANS) An American woman was banned from Facebook after she posted photos of her son affected with Down's syndrome. The social network, which termed the pictures "inappropriate", has now apologised.

April 27, 2012 at 6:23 PM

Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), the Central University of Delhi on Friday conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters to
United Nations Secretary-General Ban-ki-moon in convocation program here........

April 27, 2012 at 3:46 PM

New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said here Friday that despite the challenges involved he trusted India to build and strengthen partnerships with her neighbours and saw a "future of steadily warmer ties" in this region.

April 27, 2012 at 3:30 PM

New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) Visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was Friday conferred an honorary degree of doctor of letters at Jamia Millia Islamia here and told his audience that "when I am in India, I am at home".

April 25, 2012 at 5:25 PM

Beijing, April 25 (Xinhua-ANI): The Chinese government announced Wednesday that it has approved the establishment of an international cooperative demonstration zone in northeast Jilin province to boost cross-border cooperation in the region.

April 23, 2012 at 5:00 PM

Seoul, April 23 (Xinhua-ANI): South Korea and the United States are scheduled to hold defense talks involving discussions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s failed rocket launch earlier this month, the defense ministry here said Monday.

April 23, 2012 at 3:48 PM

Los Angeles, April 23 (IANS) Actor Zac Efron is thankful that he clicked well with his on-screen girlfriend Taylor Schilling in "The Lucky One", and says he learnt a lot from during the movie's shooting.

April 23, 2012 at 12:28 PM

Seoul, April 23 (IANS) South Korean firms' profitability weakened last year due to an increase in production costs caused by a rise in global raw material prices, the country's central bank said Monday.

April 22, 2012 at 9:33 AM

Perusing the front pages of Delhi newspapers, one gets the impression that the launch of the Agni-V intercontinental missile with a striking range of 5,000 km by India was a prominent but by no means sensational event even for Indians. There have been no overly emotional responses to it outside India either. One can't help drawing a parallel between this calm reaction and the media frenzy surrounding the failed launch of a ballistic missile by North Korea just a week ago. And when something of the kind happens in Iran, the reaction is even stronger.

April 21, 2012 at 3:01 PM

April 21, 2012 at 9:01 AM

Washington, April 21 (IANS) The International Monetary Fund has almost doubled its "fire power" to protect the world economy against deepening debt turmoil in Europe with the Group of 20 nations, including India, pledging $430 billion in new funding.

April 21, 2012 at 6:29 AM

April 21, 2012 at 2:13 AM

New Delhi, April 21 (IANS) The World Health Organisation (WHO), which is observing the year of intensification of routine immunisation in Southeast Asia, has said the region will adopt a more aggressive strategy to address the issue of low immunisation.

April 20, 2012 at 8:13 PM

New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) Achanta Sharath Kamal registered a comfortable win over Vietnam's Quyinh Tran Tuan of Vietnam 11-1, 11-9, 11-5, 11-4 in the third round Asian Olympic Qualification Table Tennis Tournament in Hong Kong Friday and is a couple of matches away from sealing a London berth.

April 20, 2012 at 4:37 PM

Phnom Penh, April 20 (Xinhua-ANI): The number of foreign tourists to Cambodia's Angkor Wat temples, one of the world heritage sites, had increased by 45 percent to 639,800 in the first quarter of this year, statistics of the Siem Reap provincial tourism department revealed on Friday.

April 20, 2012 at 4:37 PM

April 20, 2012 at 3:57 PM

Warsaw, April 20 (IANS) The organisers of the Euro 2012 football tournament will on Saturday inaugurate a training facility here for volunteers who will be working for the June 8-July 1 event jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

April 20, 2012 at 12:21 PM

Kabul, Apr 20(ANI): US ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker has called on Pakistan to target the Haqqani Network, saying there was "no question" that the group mounted recent co-ordinated attacks on Kabul and other areas over the weekend.

April 20, 2012 at 12:21 PM

Washington, Apr 20 (ANI): US Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, claimed that the United States was 'within an inch of war almost every day' in the region around North Korea, and need be 'careful' about what they do or say.

April 20, 2012 at 9:49 AM

Washington, April 20 (IANS) Refusing to criticise India for the launch of its long-range nuclear-capable missile Agni-V, the United States has contrasted New Delhi's "solid non-proliferation record" with that of North Korea.

April 20, 2012 at 6:21 AM

Moscow, April 20 (IANS/RIA Novosti) North Korea has reportedly threatened military action against South Korea unless Seoul apologises for "insulting" the centenary celebrations of Pyongyang's late founding leader Kim Il-sung.

April 19, 2012 at 6:45 PM

Moscow, April 19 (IANS /RIA Novosti) South Korea has put into service a new long-range cruise missile, capable of striking missile sites or nuclear installations in any part of neighbouring North Korea, reported Yonhap news agency Thursday citing a senior army officer with the South Korean defence ministry.

April 19, 2012 at 5:41 PM

April 19, 2012 at 5:41 PM

Colombo, April 19 (Xinhua-ANI): South Korea's government has agreed to provide technical and financial assistance to Sri Lanka for national development till 2015, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

April 19, 2012 at 5:25 PM

London, Apr 19 (ANI): The oceans were loaded with life 600 million years ago, but the simple, soft-bodied creatures would have been hardly recognizable as the ancestors of almost all animals on Earth today, researchers say.

April 19, 2012 at 2:53 PM

Pyongyang, April 19 (Xinhua-ANI): Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has said the country would uphold the ideology of late leader Kim Jong Il in its drive to achieve new victories, the official newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported Thursday.

April 19, 2012 at 1:01 PM

April 19, 2012 at 11:41 AM

New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) Kailash Kher got a chance to perform in Pakistan for the very first time and the singer-composer was overwhelmed by the kind of response he got for his act. Kher says Pakistan is much like India, where people are very warm and friendly.

April 18, 2012 at 7:33 AM

Moscow, April 18 (IANS/RIA Novosti) North Korea will continue further development of its aerospace technologies, including a satellite programme, despite the UN Security Council condemnation, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

April 17, 2012 at 6:29 PM

New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) The Indian government has downplayed reports about a proposed construction of an observatory by China in Aksai Chin, a remote part of Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh region it occupied after the 1962 war.

April 17, 2012 at 5:01 PM

New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) Against the backdrop of tensions in South China Sea and China's assertiveness, India and the US Tuesday held their fifth regional dialogue on Asia-Pacific, with US Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell lauding India's "enormously important" role in the region.

April 17, 2012 at 4:37 PM

New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) India and the US Tuesday held their fifth regional dialogue on Asia-Pacific to take stock of the present strategic, economic and security situation in the region, amidst rising tension in South China Sea over territorial disputes and a defiant North Korea's failed attempt at a rocket launch.

April 17, 2012 at 4:02 PM

Inflation has long been the common man's concern about economy. Though inflation is the most immediate economic parameter to be associated with the hike of price, it has its long and far reaching effects on the society and social concerns. The monetary strategies in the international level are less vulnerable to the effects of global inflation than the currencies of the poorer and developing nations.

April 17, 2012 at 12:39 PM

London, Apr 17 (ANI): Strong demand for luxury cars Jaguar and Land Rover has helped to drive sales higher at the Tata Motors Group, which sold 139,655 vehicles in March 2012, up 26 per cent over March 2011.

April 17, 2012 at 12:39 PM

Washington, April 17 (ANI): A new study has found that mothers born in India but living in Canada are significantly more likely to have male babies for their second and third births compared with women in Canada.

April 17, 2012 at 2:15 AM

Beijing, April 17 (IANS) China has called for more dialogue and consultations after the UN Security Council (UNSC) Monday strongly condemned North Korea over its failed satellite launch, Xinhua reported.

April 16, 2012 at 11:07 PM

New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) Against the backdrop of tensions in South China Sea and the recent defiant rocket launch by North Korea, India and the US Tuesday will hold a dialogue on issues related to East Asia, part of a string of interactions that seeks to impart a fresh momentum to India-US ties.

April 16, 2012 at 5:39 PM

London, April 16 (IANS) Google co-founder Sergey Brin has accused social networking website Facebook and computer giant Apple of being the biggest threat to online freedom, even as he said that increased efforts by governments to control access and communication by their citizens also affect the internet.

April 16, 2012 at 4:59 PM

April 16, 2012 at 4:59 PM

Pyongyang, Apr 16 (ANI): A dozen officials from Iran's controversial ballistic missiles programme visited North Korea last week to observe its latest rocket launch, which ended in failure, it has emerged.